The News They've Been Waiting To Hear

April 1, 1985|By Julia Reed of The Sentinel Staff

The results are finally in. After weeks of holding their collective breaths, local television station managers were told if their station was first in news or last, if their prime-time audience had grown or shrunk, if Donahue was kicking Barnaby Jones in the teeth. The ratings gods, Arbitron and A.C. Nielsen Co., had spoken.

Three times a year, the two national ratings companies take samples from television households to see who is watching what on TV. The second of these so-called sweeps takes place during the month of February, a month when you may wonder why you are treated to better network movies than those on HBO, and your local news team is suddenly reporting to you from other states.

The reason is that everybody wants to win the ratings game and only one station, almost always a network affiliate, can come out consistently on top in various time slots. While station managers try to downplay the sweeps weeks hoopla -- ''We always run high-quality shows,'' is a typical disclaimer -- Bruce Baker, sales manager at WFTV, Channel 9, concedes that ''obviously, this business is driven by ratings to a certain degree.''

The business is driven by ratings because no advertiser wants to pay a lot of money to run ads on a show nobody watches. If your ratings are up, your rates are up -- it's that simple. For example, Channel 9's most inexpensive daytime slot is 9 to 11 a.m., when a 30-second spot sells for a paltry $100. The reason is that just about everybody is watching Donahue on WCPX, Channel 6. Donahue is the highest-rated daytime program in the Orlando market, and although Channel 6 sales manager Jim Donnelly refused to give out any of the station's rates, he said time during the show is ''not inexpensive.''

Another way of looking at how ratings affect the ad rates is by looking at cost per point. Cost per point is the revenue generated by each television household. It is arrived at by dividing the rating of a show into the rate charged to advertise on that show.

But ratings are not all advertisers look at -- they also study the demographics, or what age group and sex are watching a particular program. ''The ratings matter,'' said Bob Fowler, sales director at WESH, Channel 2, ''Nobody wants to buy a show that's just high in demos, but they (demographics) are playing a bigger role all the time in where advertisers are placing ads.''

The best audience to have, Fowler said, is women between 18 and 49. The group is ''the major purchasers of all consumer goods,'' Fowler said, and there WESH is lucky. Nine of the top 10 shows among women 18-49 are on NBC. The station is also gaining a progressively younger audience, an audience with the potential to lure profitable fast-food and automobile advertisers. ''We have been trending over the last 2 1/2 years to a younger demographic audience.'' He attributes the trend to the station's acquisition of syndicated shows popular among a younger audience, such as Little House on the Prairie and The Newlywed Game. Both shows are on the air the ''early fringe'' time period from 4 to 6:30 p.m. and ''prime access'' just preceding prime time from 7 to 8 p.m.

Early fringe and prime access periods are both time slots during which a local station can control its own destiny. But WESH is fortunate in its network offerings as well. NBC is the ratings leader in prime-time averages, and many of the programs, such as Remington Steele and Cheers, do particularly well among the 18-49 women.

And, demographics have helped WESH's prime-time offerings that are not ratings leaders. On Wednesday night at 10 p.m., ABC's Hotel on WFTV, given a tremendous boost by Dynasty, beats NBC's St. Elsewhere on WESH. However, 59,000 women aged 18-49 watch St. Elsewhere and only 52,000 watch Hotel. Given the favorable demographics, WESH can still charge the relatively high rate of $2,000 for a 30-second spot, compared to WFTV's rate of $2,400.

The highest rate charged by WESH is $2,800 for the popular Family Ties, The A-Team and The Cosby Show. WFTV's highest rates are $2,400 for Hotel and Dynasty. Rates during WFTV's weakest prime-time hours, Thursday from 8 to 10 p.m., are $1,060. ABC's lackluster prime-time performance means that WFTV will not raise its prime-time rates this spring, a period of particularly heavy buying and one in which most stations boost rates.

The other time periods a station has more control for its ratings are the local news slots. ''Probably every TV station in the nation does something with news during the sweeps,'' said Fowler.

During this sweep, WFTV clearly took the lead in news specials, such as its controversial ''Shoot, Don't Shoot'' series in the 11 p.m. news slot, and it paid off. After the November ratings sweeps, for the first time in recent years, the station lost its lead in the 11 o'clock news. After February it was back on top with a 13 rating in the Monday through Friday average, compared to WESH's 9 rating and WCPX's 8.